Inspired by Anxiety: Presence and Purpose

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again because I firmly believe it: Everything. Is. Connected. If you can try to embrace that idea, then the solution to any particular source of anxiety may not come from just one area of our lives, but be pieced together by taking action in many other areas. While each post in this series is devoted to a particular dimension of health, there will inevitably be some overlap, which I’ll acknowledge as well. With that said, on to the next dimension:

Presence & Purpose
(Spiritual Health)

Spiritual health is one of the more tricky aspects of health to grasp. Because it is closely related to beliefs, faith, and awareness, it isn’t exactly tangible. That, and the fact that there are some similarities between spiritual health and mental health concepts, can make it difficult to measure spiritual well-being.

Some of the more obvious terms associated with spirituality are religion, mindfulness, and purpose. All great terms, but probably nothing that there aren’t already hundreds of articles about. Instead, I’d like to give you something that’s hopefully a little bit different here, using spirituality to cope with anxiety:

Faith and Trust

OCD likes to demand control of our actions and the outcomes of those actions at times. Of course, there are many things in this world our outside of our control. Anxiety hates that, and it’s a perfect recipe for more anxiety. This is where faith comes in.

Although it can refer to religion, faith doesn’t have to equal religion, and I don’t necessarily mean it that way as I did when I wrote earlier this year about rediscovering aspects of my religiosity. Faith, by definition, is simply having trust, confidence, or a belief in something or someone.

Many times when I get anxious, it’s fair to say that I don’t always trust that something I want to happen will happen, or that someone will be there or do what I am hoping they will do. I sometimes project this insecurity onto other things in the future, often leading to further anxiety about a hypothetical domino effect in which this one particular thing happening or not happening now will cause a series of undesirable events.

via Giphy

This is where trust and faith come into play. Like many of the things I have highlighted throughout this mini-series, trusting in something in someone can be far more easily said than done. Still, there’s a place for it in our lives as a way to cope with moments of anxiety.

Rather than fearing the worst, trusting that said something or someone will come through and that things will work out OK can provide a bit of relief, even if it’s only for a short period of time. Of course, that doesn’t guarantee that we’ll see the outcome we want, or that this won’t cause us anxiety down the road. It can, though, give us a kind of buffer, a period of time when we might allow ourselves not to experience that anxiety as strongly. Sure, it may still be unavoidable, but it’s worth trying to find ways to trust in some of the little things, that they will turn out OK.

Connectedness to Purpose

I’ve spoken before about how for years, I kept my mental health issues to myself, hidden from friends, family, teachers, and peers for fear that I would be misunderstood. And yes, being misunderstood can cause anxiety in itself, so I do understand why one might feel the need to keep things bottled up. Unfortunately, in my experience, what was intended to be self-preservation turned out to have short changed me of some very important connections.

I’m not suggesting that you should share things that you aren’t comfortable sharing. We all deserve our privacy and have the right to keep our internal struggles to ourselves until we’re ready to open up about them, if and when that time does come. What I have found, though, is that keeping things too much to myself actually caused me to question myself, who I was, what my purpose was, and how to live according to that purpose.

via Giphy

Purpose, like spirituality itself, can be a somewhat vague concept, but let’s just for argument’s sake say that purpose is something along the lines of “what we’re meant to do in our lives,” and/or “the impact we’re supposed to have on the world.” While I’m sure there are a select few who know their purpose early on in life, I’d be willing to assert that the majority of us take quite some time to discover this for ourselves.

We learn from our environment and from those around us. We can process these things internally, but whether we realize it or not, many of us depend on these interactions and experiences to grow. Depriving ourselves of those connections can hinder some of that growth towards purpose. I am just now beginning to feel strongly about my own purpose, and that discovery has come largely as the result of many interactions with other people, ones which could only have been made by allowing myself to open up and connect.

Equanimity and Presence of Mind

I’ll be honest, I had no idea what the term equanimity meant until I researched aspects of spiritual health a couple of years ago. Frankly, I’ve heard it so infrequently that I still don’t necessarily feel comfortable using it in a sentence. But, I’m curious, and in searching for inspiration for this third component, I referred back to equanimity.

After re-familiarizing myself with the concept, equanimity is, most basically, keeping a calmness, level-headedness, and composure during life’s challenging moments. I’m not a life coach, nor am I an expert on spirituality, but when I think about keeping my composure there are several things that come to mind. The first is breathing, which obviously overlaps with our physical self. When our anxiety rises and our adrenaline starts pumping, breathing can lower our heart rate and help our bodies to maintain that calmness.

In these moments, we may need several reminders to take these breaths, and this may fall directly on us if nobody else is around. During one the most anxiety-ridden points in my life, one trick I found useful was to write a word or short phrase on my hand as that built-in reminder to take those breaths and find that composure. It’s not foolproof, but it’s not always easy to tell ourselves these things in the midst of an anxious moment, and so it’s OK to take this little shortcut.

The second thing that comes to mind related to keeping composure is having perspective. This takes practice and possibly some post-it reminders or other notes-to-self. Because again, anxious moments aren’t always conducive to having the presence of mind to self-regulate these calming thoughts.

Anxiety often comes when our perspectives are thrown eschew, when we feel that things are worse than they may actually be. Sometimes, the situation is within our control an all we need to do is stop and think, how can I solve this? If you’re like me, having a pen and paper handy to jot down the solutions may be helpful. Setting up these little mental checkpoints may bring clarity, comfort and peace of mind.

To connect with others we must first trust others. These others provide us with different frames of reference so that we can put things into perspective for ourselves. Ultimately, each of these 3 aspects of spirituality trace back to self-awareness which is often the underlying key to spiritual well-being.

Since embracing the idea that spirituality didn’t just mean going to a religious place of worship and praying to a higher power, I have made more of an effort to become more self-aware so that I may find some spiritual grounding and peace. Has it been a cure-all for my anxiety? No. I’m not sure there is such thing, at least not for me. But, have these things helped me to better cope with my anxiety when it gets out of control? Yes, and I hope that this is helpful to you as well.

In what ways do you use spirituality to manage anxiety?
Share your comments at the bottom of the page.

Whatismyhealth © 2018